Burned by OnagoFly? Welcome to the club.

So Much OnagoFly Stuff…

Seems a few things OnagoFly have popped up while I was on vacation. Trying to cram it into one post!

First off, there was the fiasco that was the Facebook Live chat on 9/23 . Seems it was just as poorly advertised as the first one. SPOILER ALERT: they took the original one down because it was so bad. Analysis here. This one didn’t seem to have much new information, other than they still can’t figure out how social media and technology works, and a ‘big announcement’ that was ‘coming soon’. Speculation ranged from V2.0 to yet another refund/return policy. Turns out, that was mostly on the mark.

There was a second one that wasn’t much better or more informative, but at least had some participation.

Since then, a user had posted a screenshot of an email from OnagoFly on the Users Page on Facebook. It appears they ask the purchaser to return the defective drone to them in exchange for ‘special pricing’ on the NEW ONAGOFLY MODEL. This one claims to be different, as it’s slightly bigger, better camera and more powerful battery, among other alleged improvements. The specs seem to match up with the new model 1Plus that has been seen on Alibaba and rumored to be the actual OnagoFly that was advertised on Indiegogo.

Bait & Switch…send us broken one in warranty period, we’ll sell you a new one!

Is this their customer service and return policy now? Send back your defective one…and we will, out of the goodness of our hearts, offer you a discount on a new, untested drone from a company with one of the worst reputations in the drone business for your troubles and more cash????? If this is a joke, it stopped being funny back in March.

Then, we were treated to a new mea culpa video featuring our buddy Leo Zhang. On top of a cheesy, sad piano soundtrack, Leo again claims he’s sorry about all the OnagoTroubles. The production quality seems like this was done on a shoestring, which is actually a plus. No high video quality or trickery here, unlike the sales pitch video we fell for. Seems as though they’re not spending money irresponsibly…either because they’re serious, or burned through $6 million + in cash. Who can tell.

In the video, we actually get some juicy (for the lawyers, mostly) info about why v1.0 was such a failure. Leo says that the CPU, which ‘runs’ the drone, was inadequate (go to 1:32). It was manufactured by a 3rd party, which isn’t that unusual, but Leo acts surprised that this deficiency was the case. Why? The complaints started as soon as the first models were shipped, and haven’t stopped. If there was any Quality Assurance testing done, they would have discovered this issue and been able to rectify early and completely.

Was it carelessness that this allegedly wasn’t discovered until recently, or a disregard for the issue? This may have been an issue from day 1, just like Follow Me not working anywhere near as well as promised and advertised. We may never know, but that damage is definitely done. Orders were shipped to customers around the world, and now they’re stuck with an admittedly deficient quadcopter.
Not sure how legit it is to blame the CPU manufacturer for all the the shortcomings. Issues have been brought up about battery, rotor speed and lift ability as well. Can’t blame the CPU shortcomings for the battery. To put this in perspective, a lesser quality and speed processor won’t allow faster or more complex needs to function. It’s like trying to put a memory hog like Windows 10 on a computer from 1996…there’s just not enough memory to run the comparatively complex processes that are needed.

It’s almost insurmountable to correct without physically replacing the inferior CPUs with the correct, more powerful boards. A softwear update cannot fix this; the best soft wear in the world can’t fix hardware limitations.

So what does this mean? App updates (which haven’t occurred since mid September despite another OnagoFly promise of more frequent updates) won’t fix it, softwear updates won’t properly address it, you may be looking a a complete replacement of the device. Which may be why OnagoFly is starting the game of not replacing, but offering special pricing on new versions. A warranty is a warranty, and it should be honored, despite the frequent changing of the terms on OnagoFly’s side.

June 2016 Indiegogo update claiming frequent updates to app

So, if you’re keeping score at home, here are the functions that do not work: GPS, Follow Me, Smile Detection, 12-15 minute flight time, Obstacle Detection is sporadic at best, and P2P streaming. A majority of the features that were advertised do not function, and no reparations are offered. At what point can we say we were scammed?

If ONAGOFly and Acumen Robot Intelligence had ANY integrity, rather than trying to upsell, they’d be falling head over heels to replace the defective drones NOW and make it right (as they so often claim to be their goal) with their customers now.

Since then, OnagoFly asked me to act as a conduit between disgruntled customers and them. I flatly declined that offer. Nathan was hoping I could help work with them on issues. I will NOT put my reputation on the line for a company that has shown no remorse or regret for their actions, or offered anything other than excuses. They can keep tweeting about significant days on the calendar instead.

PS-OnagoFly blocked @OnagoLies on Twitter prior to this, so they showed how ‘serious’ they were about wanting to work together. NBD.
In the meantime, I’ve spoken with a representative for the Class Action proceedings. At this time, it is only for US customers, but hopes are high that there will be additional representation for international parties. I’ve heard that there is one occurring in the UK and EU, but not privy to much info on it. They are working through the hundreds of contacts they’ve made through the GolombHonik website here. If you haven’t checked it out, please do. Your voice matters.